The present invention relates to an emergent escape unit adapted to be used in case a high building such as a hotel, an office building or the like is on fire or in case such a high building is damaged due to an earthquake causing the elevator to come to a dead stop, thereby preventing people in the building from coming downstairs.
Due to the high cost of urban land architectural techniques have caused the development of buildings much higher than before. Such multistoried buildings pose risks of fire and earthquake danger, thereby raising the desirability of precaution against a disaster. However, if a building is actually on fire or subject to an earthquake causing the elevator to come to a dead stop, the safety of people upstairs is not assured since such people are so far from the ground.
Conventional multistoried buildings have often no facilities to provide for a disaster such as a fire, an earthquake or the like. As a matter of fact, there was reported on the news that, in Brazil, a fire started at a high building and caused a great loss of life because the building did not have a device which enabled the occupants to get away from the building in a safe manner.
As emergency escape units, there are known (i) a unit having a winch installed at the upper portion of an outer wall of a building, adapted to slowly lower people, one by one, with the use of a rope, (ii) a rope disposed at a corner of a room with which people escape from the room with the rope wound on the fixed portion of a pillar, furniture or the like in the room in case of a fire, and (iii) similar techniques.
However, when people escape with the use of such a rope, a number of people cannot come down simultaneously. Further, if the building quickly catches on fire, there are instances where the rope is burnt in the middle course of descent and people fall to their death. Thus, safety is not assured.
As a method of escaping from a high building, it has been considered to make a parachute descent as done from an airplane.
However, when people escape with parachutes, there is no warranty that the parachutes are securely opened. Accordingly, the use of parachutes may be rather dangerous.